I had never been to that place before—but as it turned out, it was as though it had been charmed in my favor before I even walked through the door.
One of my old contacts had invited me out. Taylor, a friend of mine from back in high school who had sponsored me with the Paulito Angels motorcycle club. We kept in hazy contact, but I always hit him up when I needed a new place to get my card–game on. Eventually, all the bars and clubs I frequented would grow tired of me sweeping the place of cash every time I went in, and I needed a new challenge. Taylor promised me that these guys were the best, and I hadn’t bothered to ask if anything about this place was legal.
Not that I gave much of a shit. As long as the booze was cheap and the playing was good, I was happy to while away the rest of the night doing nothing much whatsoever. Not to mention the fact that the couple of scantily clad women who had been hired to serve us for the night had slowly been gravitating their way towards me since I walked in the door. I could tell it was pissing off Ian, who sat opposite me, clutching a handful of cards to his chest as though they contained the secrets to the universe. He screwed up his face in annoyance, peering over at my winnings and frowning heavily.
“You sure this guy’s on the up–and–up?” Ian demanded of Friedrich, the asshole club owner, who seemed more interested in getting his hands all over the chicks sitting on either side of me. I could tell that he desperately wanted me to be a cheating piece of shit, but had to admit that I was just that damn good. He shrugged apologetically at Ian.
“Seems so, my man.”
I felt one of the girl’s hands tiptoeing along my shoulder and down my back; I glanced over at her, and she flashed me a dazzling smile. I felt my cock twitch with interest at the thought of getting both of them back to my apartment and out of those cumbersome dresses, but I quickly pushed the thought from my mind. I needed to keep my head in the game, because if I lost this shit now, I wouldn’t be able to pay my bar tab. And I had a feeling that the guys here wouldn’t be so keen on me putting it on credit.
Suddenly, my attention was drawn by the sound of the buzz in the bar dropping away to almost nothing. That couldn’t be good. My head snapped up, and I wished I hadn’t left my piece at home. It wasn’t like I wanted to use it, but in in places like this, you could never be sure. Friedrich had approached a staging area in the bar, pausing for a moment as everyone turned to pay him the attention he so clearly thought that he deserved. I placed my cards face down on the table, and reached for my scotch. This should be interested. What was this going to be, a cabaret night?
“Thank you all for joining us this evening,” he remarked, sweeping his hand out across the entire room to encompass the two dozen or so people who were sitting in the dingy dim half–light of this place. “I know some of you have been waiting all night for this moment, so here she is…tonight’s biggest prize.”
I glanced around; a couple of people were whispering to each other, and I could tell that whatever was about to happen was a big deal. I tightened my grip on my glass protectively, and shrugged off the two chicks sitting either side of me as I leaned forward to take in the local color. I had no idea what to expect next—and when it happened, I had to admit that never in a million years would I have guessed what was about to go down.
A polished wooden door opened at the back of the staging area, and Friedrich stepped aside to allow for a couple of people to emerge. The first was a man, a real goon of a guy, thickly built and with a brow that practically entered the room before he did. And behind him—a woman. A woman I knew all too well.
“Well, gentlemen, we have a treat for you tonight,” Friedrich remarked as he swept his eyes up and down the woman standing to his right. He grabbed her arm and pulled her in close to him, and my mind raced as I tried to figure out what I should do next.
That woman—that fucking woman—was the cop who had arrested me, not once, not twice, but three fucking times. And now, here she was, paraded about on stage before me in—I supposed some people would call it a dress, but to me, it looked like a collection of belts that barely covered her nipples, or the area between her thighs. I guess it would have been a more natural reaction for me to be delighted to see her in such a state of humiliation, but I could tell at once that something was seriously wrong.
“This is Angel,” Friedrich announced, an almost reverent tone to his voice. “And she’s a cop. We picked her up off the street earlier tonight, and now she’s here for one lucky man to use and, preferably, abuse…”
Angel tried to pull away from him, but something was holding her back. Her eyes looked glassy, and her movements were slow and lethargic, as though she was moving through honey. She slumped against Friedrich, who seemed all too happy to get her up close and personal. I shuddered at the sight of him with his hands on her; he had seemed like a creep from the second I’d walked in this door, but I guess I hadn’t vouched for him being quite this level of creep. I knew this kind of shit went down in clubs like this, but I had never seen it happen in person. Never hoped I would, either. I preferred my women willing and fully–conscious, but it seemed like I was in the minority as I looked around the room and saw the predatory glint in the eyes of the men surrounding me.
And she was a cop, too. I could be sure that almost everyone in this place had a bone to pick with the police that they would be all–too–happy to take out on her. The thought was grim as hell; this woman, plucked probably straight from the middle of her shift, becoming a punching bag for some asshole’s attitude towards the cops. She staggered again, and I wondered if she had any idea what was actually going on. She looked so out of it that I was astonished she could stand up straight. And then, of course, Friedrich decided that it was time to put on a show.
He gripped the shoulder strap of her deep red dress, the same strap that was covering a tiny sliver of her breast, and jerked it aside, exposing her. There was a murmur of appreciation around the room, until Angel shook his hand off and re–adjusted herself angrily. I could see a glimmer of rebellion in her eyes, the same glimmer she’d had the three times she’d taken me down. I knew I should have just sat back and left her to her fate—as long as she was off the streets and away from me then what did it matter, right? But as Friedrich went to expose her once again, I knew I couldn’t just sit aside and let it happen. I was an asshole, no doubt, but I wasn’t quite at the level of assholery where I could just watch this happen.
“So, what are the bids on Angel tonight?” Friedrich ran the back of his finger down her cheek, and she jerked away from him as if on impulse. The bidding began in earnest—a hundred, two hundred, a thousand, a thousand–five–hundred—it was so fast I could barely keep up with it. I looked down at the earnings that had been piling up on the table in front of me, and let out an internal sigh. Was I really going to give all of that up just to save a cop who had arrested me more times than anyone else? Apparently, I was. I slammed my hand down on the table, the drinks and the cash rattling loudly enough to catch the attention of everyone else in the room, and put in my bid.